GOP aims to prevent redrawing of districts Party stands to lose 8 seats in Congress

Ed Mendel
San Diego Union-Tribune
March 22, 2000

Congressional Republicans, fearing the loss of up to eight seats in California, have decided to fund an initiative that would prevent the Democratic-controlled Legislature from drawing new congressional and legislative districts.

After months of indecision and squabbling among themselves, congressional Republicans last week put $170,000, presumably a first installment, into a last-minute drive to gather the signatures needed to place a redistricting initiative on the November ballot.

The shape of new districts, which are drawn once each decade to reflect population shifts recorded by the federal census, can help determine which party controls Congress and the Legislature, affecting how billions of taxpayer dollars are spent.

Republicans have been scrambling to protect themselves since Gov. Gray Davis became the first Democrat to hold the office in 16 years. Former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed Democratic-drawn plans in 1991, causing the state Supreme Court to draw the current districts.

The new GOP-backed initiative would take redistricting out of the hands of the Legislature and give it to a three-member panel appointed by the state Judicial Council. The new districts would have to be reviewed by the state Supreme Court and then approved by voters in a statewide election.

"We believe, and many analysts in the field of political science agree, that removing redistricting from the Legislature is a desirable reform," said Ted Costa of People's Advocate, the author of the initiative. "It's a matter of when that idea's time is going to come."

In a process whose extreme form is known as "gerrymandering," the party registration of voters can be used as a guide to create districts that favor the election of candidates from one party or the other. Republicans, the minority party in California, have been unable to change the process.

Voters have rejected initiatives proposing various redistricting reforms -- a redistricting commission in 1982, a panel of retired appellate justices in 1984, and two initiatives in 1990: a commission and a requirement for two-thirds approval by the Legislature.

In an attempt to give voters another reason to vote for redistricting reforms, congressional Republicans helped Costa put an initiative on the March ballot this year that would have given redistricting to the courts while also cutting the pay of legislators.

But the state Supreme Court removed Proposition 24 from the ballot, declaring that the initiative violated a constitutional requirement that ballot measures be limited to a single subject. Costa refiled two separate initiatives on redistricting and a legislative pay cut.

Under the agreement with congressional Republicans, Costa is only gathering signatures for the redistricting initiative. He said he has collected about 200,000 signatures and hopes to submit more than 700,000 signatures for the proposed constitutional amendment by around May 1.

"We have to hit on all cylinders," said Costa. "We have to hit with our pros (paid signature-gatherers), with our mail and with Republican volunteers around the state."

If the initiative fails to qualify or is rejected by voters, Republicans could try to quickly gather enough signatures to place Democratic-drawn districts before voters in a referendum, as happened in 1982. But there is a new difficulty this time: The primary election has been moved from June to March to give California more clout in presidential elections.

Davis could sign new Democratic-drawn districts on Oct. 1 next year, shortly before candidates must begin taking out papers for the March 2002 primary elections. Republicans might only have five or six weeks to gather signatures for a referendum before candidates begin filing in the new districts.